guile-ssh/README

# -*- mode: org; -*-

[[./doc/logo-with-text.png]]

Guile-SSH is a library that provides access to the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell][SSH protocol]] for programs
written in [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][GNU Guile]] interpreter.  It is built upon the [[https://www.libssh.org/][libssh]] library.

* Features
  - The API that is sufficient for building of standalone SSH clients and
    servers, or for embedding client/server functionality in your lispy Scheme
    applications.
  - Several authentication methods are supported, including password
    authentication, public key and SSH agent authentication methods.
  - Key management procedures: you can make key pairs, read keys from files,
    get key hashes, get public keys from private keys etc.  DSS, RSA, RSA1 and
    ECDSA (by means of OpenSSL) are supported.
  - Port forwarding procedures and high-level API for creating of SSH tunnels.
  - Distributed forms (=dist-map=, =distribute=, ...) that allow to spread the
    evaluation of Scheme code between remote hosts.  Or you can just connect
    to a remote REPL from Scheme using =with-ssh= procedure and evaluate some
    expressions.  No special server needed on the remote side, just an SSH
    daemon and GNU Guile installed!
  - SFTP client API allows you to read and write remote files over the SSH
    protocol right from the Scheme code.
  - Remote popen API that allows you to make either input, output or
    bidirectional pipes to remote processes.
  - Detailed documentation in Texinfo format with examples included, even more
    examples in =examples= directory.
* License
  Guile-SSH is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
  the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
  any later version.  Please see =COPYING= file for the terms of GNU General
  Public License.

  The logo (=doc/logo.svg=, =doc/logo-with-text.svg= and rasterised versions)
  is distributed under terms of [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/][Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
  International]].
* Requirements

 - [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][GNU Guile]], version 2.0.9 or later (known to work with 2.0.9, 2.0.12)
 - [[http://www.libssh.org/][libssh]], version 0.6.4 or later (0.7.3 or later is recommended due to
   [[https://www.libssh.org/2016/02/23/libssh-0-7-3-security-and-bugfix-release/][CVE-2016-0739 found in previous versions]].)

* Distribution

Files:
 - AUTHORS contains list of people who contributed to the library
   development.
 - COPYING contains the terms of GNU General Public License.
 - INSTALL contains general instructions for building/installing of
   Guile-SSH.
 - NEWS describes user-visible changes.
 - TODO contains plans for the further development and list of known bugs.

Directories:
 - examples     -- Examples of Guile-SSH usage.
 - libguile-ssh -- Sources of the Guile-SSH library.
 - modules      -- Scheme modules.
 - doc          -- Documentation in Texinfo format.
 - tests        -- Unit tests.

Files are usually installed according to the prefix specified to
=configure= script, =/usr/local= by default.  Building and installing
gives you:

Libraries, in =${prefix}/lib=:
 - libguile-ssh.so.<version>
 - libguile-ssh.la
 - libguile-ssh.a

Guile modules, in =${GUILE_SITE}/ssh=:
 - auth.scm    -- User authentication.
 - channel.scm -- Channel manipulation.
 - dist.scm    -- Distributed forms.
   - dist/job.scm  -- Low-level distributed job API.
   - dist/node.scm -- Low-level distributed node API.
 - key.scm     -- Keys management.
 - log.scm     -- Interface to libssh logging facilities
 - message.scm -- Procedures for working with SSH messages.
 - popen.scm   -- Remote popen API.
 - server.scm  -- Server API.
 - session.scm -- Session management.
 - sftp.scm    -- SFTP client API.
 - shell.scm   -- High-level API to a remote shell.
 - tunnel.scm  -- SSH tunnels.
 - version.scm -- Information about versions.

All the modules will be compiled and produced .go files will be installed to
=site-ccache= directory which is something like this:
=${libdir}/guile/2.0/site-ccache/ssh/=.

Documentation in Info format, in =${prefix}/share/info/=:
 - guile-ssh.info

Examples, in =${prefix}/share/guile-ssh/examples=:
 - ssshd.scm    -- SSH server example.
 - sssh.scm     -- SSH client example.
 + echo/
   - client.scm -- Echo client example.
   - server.scm -- Echo server example.
 + rpc/
   - client.scm -- A simple Guile-RPC client that makes an RPC call over
     a Guile-SSH tunnel.
   - server.scm -- A simple Guile-RPC server.
 - rrepl.scm    -- Remote REPL example.
 - sscp.scm     -- Scheme secure copy.
 - pg-tunnel.scm -- Connect to a PostgreSQL instance through an SSH tunnel.
 - uptop.scm    -- Uppercase =top=, through a remote pipe.

* Installation

The library can be installed by the following means:
  - Using GNU Guix: https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/
  - Using Arch GNU/Linux AUR package:
    https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/guile-ssh/
  - Manually.  If you're considering manual installation, see the notes below.

Thanks for all the people who helped with packaging of Guile-SSH!

For a basic explanation of the installation of the package, see the
INSTALL file.

Please *note* that you will need [[https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/][Automake]] 1.12 or later to run
self-tests with =make check= (but the library itself can be built with
older Automake version such as 1.11).

*important* You probably want to call configure with the
=--with-guilesitedir= option so that this package is installed in
Guile's default path.  But, if you don't know where your Guile site
directory is, run =configure= without the option, and it will give you
a suggestion.

* Usage
Please see the documentation in Info format for API documentation and usage
examples -- you can open it by typing =info guile-ssh= in the shell, or using
=C-h i m guile-ssh RET= combo in Emacs.  Also take a look on examples in the
=examples= directory.